


Library of Hearts

by TeaTinBlix



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: :3c, Dunkle Papyrus, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Other, Pining, Possible eventual poly relationship, Protective Papyrus, Protective Sans, Reader Is Not Chara, Reader Is Not Frisk, Reverse Harem, dunkle sans - Freeform, eventual smut????, past trauma, tropes galore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 06:14:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17996468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaTinBlix/pseuds/TeaTinBlix
Summary: You're a green-thumbed gardener who works, and lives, at the old library in town. You're the sole guardian of your two little twin siblings, and they're constantly making sure to keep you on your toes, as well as also constantly making sure to keep your dang sappy heart full to bursting.After a bit of time, and with the help of your little siblings, you befriend a local skeleton monster or two. Or three. Make that four. Hup, turns out there's a lot of 'em in town! And they all live under one roof; an old hotel that's less of a hotel now than it is a giant private apartment building for said skeleton family.Monsters have been up on the surface for a good while now, so you're always looking on the more positive, brighter side of things, hoping that all that hatred and vitriol that was so prevalent when they first came to the surface had died down, hopefully for good. But humanity has a tendancy of letting hatred fester to a breaking point, and you and your little family end up being offered a much needed safe haven with the skeleton crew after your library--a place you'd been so damn proud of and felt so safe at--is threatened.Family isn't blood. It's trust, love, and maybe a little bit of magic.





	Library of Hearts

You were up to your elbows in dirt, leaves and twigs were sticking every which way out of your hair, and your glasses sat crooked on the bridge of your nose, held firmly in place by a bright green little nylon band attached to the temple tips.

You chewed on the end of a popsicle stick, the popsicle long gone as you set the new, healthy rosebush into the earth carefully, scooping the rich topsoil back into the hole you’d dug around it to keep it steady. You grinned around the gnawed-on stick between your teeth as you pat the dirt down gently, taking another glance at the label of this particular rose.

‘Lavender Light’ the tag for this particular hybrid read. When these babies bloomed, they were gonna have the prettiest purple petals you’d ever seen! Or, at least, that’s what you were hoping for.

You sat back in the grass, eyeing over your work. Not all of the flowers were in bloom yet, so it was mostly just a wash of healthy green, but that was all good and dandy for you. The garden looped around the side of the quiet little library, and a few benches with tables and a gazebo decorated the space. A perfect little spot to read or study or relax for the library-goers any time they wanted. 

The building itself was an old, two story red brick one, sandstone making up the elegant archway over the heavy wooden door. 

You’d been working here for years now, and in fact lived up on the upstairs floor of the building; this place was practically your pride and joy. You cared about the library, you cared about the garden. Things had been...very rough, in the past, but...you felt you were finally in a good place. 

The thought solidified when a little figure leaned out of one of the windows of the first floor. A little dot of a girl with a wide grin that sported a missing tooth and hair just as messy as your own. Her name was Isabelle, but she _insisted_ she be called Izy.

“Hey, Poppy!” Izy called, and you couldn’t help but smile at the old nickname. One you had earned years and years ago, ever since your love of gardening had really _taken root_. Ooh, that was a good one; you made a note to write that down somewhere.

“Hey-o!” You called back, waving a dirt-caked garden glove in the air. “What’s up?”

“What does...uh,” the little girl paused to grab something behind her, and when she leaned back out the window again, elbows resting on the sill, she had a crisp, clean white paper in her hands. Ah, it was her pen pal letter, then. “...Im-by-ky-lic?” she tried to sound the word out, squinting.

You knew she had a little extra trouble reading it because you knew her pen pal wrote in cursive. Which was a difficult enough for a 7 year old to deal with, but she was a damn genius, you were sure. Fifth grade reading level in second grade? You felt pride swell in your chest as she struggled to read the word again, even if she was reading whatever the heck it was wrong.

“Spell it out for me?” you called.

“Uh...okay. I-m-b-e-c-i-l-i-c,” Izy read slowly.

You snorted and stood, clapping your gloves a few times to shake off as much of the dirt you could. “That spells ‘imbecilic’. It’s an insult. Basically means ‘dumb’. The first ‘c’ makes an ‘s’ sound,” you said. “What’s he griping about now? Who’s he calling names?”

“I was tellin’ him about when Kevin pulled at my hair last week, remember that? ‘Cause I didn’t give him my Tamagotchi.”

You clicked your tongue and nodded; you were so proud of this kid, standing up for herself.

“So I told him about that in my last letter, and in this one he says…” Izy cleared her throat, and you crossed your arms, awaiting what was probably gonna be a real fun sentence to hear coming out of a 7 year old’s mouth. She even amped up the volume of her voice to try to match his.

“ _THIS HUMAN, KEVIN, SOUNDS LIKE AN IMBECILIC WASTE OF SPACE AND ENERGY. I WOULD SUGGEST YOU ‘SHOW HIM WHO’S BOSS’. SOME LEGAL OPTIONS,_ ” Izy paused to look up. “And ‘legal’ is underlined like three times,” she said, then went on. “ _INCLUDE INFORMING A TEACHER OR PARENT. I SUGGEST, HOWEVER, A MORE DIRECT… APP-ROACH,_ " she continued after a brief squint. “ _AND BELIEVE THAT A DUEL USING A WEAPON OF YOUR CHOICE SUITS THIS PRE-DIC-A-MENT BEST._ ”

At that point you had taken one of your dirtied gloves off and had one hand pressed over your mouth to hide your wide, thoroughly entertained grin.

Her pen pal was… Well, he was unique. That was one way of putting it.

You remembered very clearly the first day he had come in. You’d seen him maybe twice before then in town in passing, but he always looked the same.

That being, pissed off and thoroughly disgusted with whatever was going on around him. He was very off-putting at first, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was, of all things, a skeleton monster.

Taller than you by a few inches, dressed in a rich purple outfit that sported deep black and silver armor at his shoulders and waist, and a purple scarf wrapped around his neck. The lights in his eyes glowed a similar purple to his outfit, and over one of his sockets cut down a wicked line of a scar. His teeth were sharp and always tugged down into an agitated scowl.

But no, it wasn’t his appearance at all that made you wish he’d turn right back around and leave. Or, at least, it didn’t bother you any. No, it was the fact that he was...much too loud for your library. And much too rude. Way too rude. _So_ much rude.

“HUMAN,” he’d barked at you while you sat behind your desk.

Honestly you had gotten everything you needed to finish done, so you’d been playing solitaire on the work computer. You’d blinked and looked up at him, smiling bright.

“Hi! How can I help you--”

“I’M LOOKING FOR BOOKS ON PUZZLES,” he snapped, interrupting your greeting. “THE MORE COMPLICATED AND DIFFICULT TO SOLVE, THE BETTER.”

You nodded, already lifting your hand to point him in the right direction. You’d barely gotten two words out before he stormed off in the direction you’d pointed, and was gone with a quiet huff.

You’d clicked your tongue, leaned back in your chair, and heaved a sigh. Well, you still hoped he’d find what he was looking for. Otherwise you knew he’d probably come back complaining.

And then another monster had moved by your desk. Another skeleton monster, wearing a black, fur lined coat with the hood thrown up over his skull. You caught a glimmer of gold off of the false, sharp canines of his mouth as he quirked a grin down at you. He was massive, easily pushing seven feet tall, and you’d only blinked up at him like an idiot.

Hot dog, hel _lo_.

“sorry about my bro,” the tall skeleton said, voice raspy and rough and low like a purr. “we’re new in town. he was gettin’ antsy bein’ stuck in the house, an’ we were glad t’find this place had a library in it.”

He gave the main entrance a little once-over, hands still stuffed in the pockets of his jacket. In the entryway of your library there was a huge bulletin for local events or missing pets posters or even just drawings local kids wanted to show off. Girl Scouts often set up a table near the board, and they always made a killing.

Behind your desk was a mural painted by a local artist some twenty years ago; vibrantly colorful, depicting buildings made up entirely out of books and paper. The shelves stretched out just past your desk, with big, easy to read signs marking each section.

“s’cute,” he said after a moment. “might come back here, even if it’s just t’appreciate the view.”

And then he’d given you a wink and wandered off after his brother, and left you a blushing mess. You never saw the two of them leave, which was odd, but you probably had just been paying attention to your damn solitaire game again. You guessed he didn’t find the puzzle book he was looking for.

The second time you saw the brothers, it had been raining outside. Oddly enough, they stepped up to your desk without an umbrella in sight, dry as a bone ( _ha!_ ).

“Hi again!” you had greeted them. “Some storm out there, huh?”

“STORM? OH, YES, I SUPPOSE,” the shorter of the brothers waved a hand dismissively. “I’M LOOKING FOR SOMETHING… MUTT!” he barked, and glared up at his taller brother, who blinked slowly down at him. “WHAT WAS THAT GENRE CALLED?”

“murder myst--”

“MURDER MYSTERY!” 

You clicked your tongue, glancing between them for just a moment, before you grinned again. “Nice. Good pick, those’re gonna be near the back, just that way. There’s enough to choose from that it gets its own sign and section, so you won’t mess it,” you said, pointing again.

“If it’s cool to ask, what sort of murdery stuff you looking for?” you managed to asked before he took off. “Like, do you want more of a classic murder mystery, like Sherlock Holmes style? Or something super gory and gross? More along the lines of a thriller sorta story?”

The shorter skeleton blinked at you, looking surprised you’d bothered to try to find out.

“...BOTH.”

“Cool, hang on a sec,” you said, and grabbed a blank notecard, writing down a few different titles that you knew were good; at least in your own opinion. You held it out for him to take, grinning. “These ones are ones I’ve read and thought were good. I put a little star next to the ones that super had me at the edge of my seat.”

He seemed to hesitate, but reached out and took the card after a moment, glancing down at the titles you’d suggested.

“That section is in alphabetical order by author, by the way,” you tacked on.

“...YES. THANK YOU.” He had turned and stormed off without another word, glancing down t the notecard again, and the taller one hummed and took his time twisting away from the desk to amble after him.

“Your name’s Mutt?” you couldn’t help but ask, crossing your arms over the desk. It wouldn’t honestly be that strange; you’d heard plenty ‘stranger’ Monster names, after all. Including one Mr. Heats Flamesman. He was a cool little dude.

“nah,” he grinned, and reached into his pocket, pulling out a round little sucker, tearing off the wrapper and stuffing the paper into his pocket before he clicked the candy between his teeth. “s’just what my bro likes t’call me.” He glanced back towards his brother, watching him disappear around a tall aisle of books. “...you can call me rus.”

“Rus?” you repeated, and your smile widened. “Like Russell?”

“...eh. sure,” he snorted and cocked a bony brow ridge at you. “...this is the part where we’re supposed t’trade names, doll. i don’t give anything away for free.”

You had laughed, leaned back in your chair, and narrowed your eyes playfully. “Well it isn’t _doll_. But you can call me Poppy.”

“poppy, huh? that’s a flower, right?” He rolled the stick of the sucker between his teeth as you nodded, and his smirk grew a little wider. “...cute.” And with that, he’d sauntered away from the desk again, tailing after his brother.

When they came back to the front desk, they had every single book you’d suggested, which honestly had you flush a little bit.

“Heavy reader, huh?” you grinned as you began to scan the books into your system.

“IT PASSES THE TIME. WHICH I FIND MYSELF HAVING QUITE A LOT OFF,” he’d grumbled.

“I feel that. Oh, hey, this reminds me. I didn’t see you guys leave last time you were here, so you didn’t get to sign up for your library card. If you just fill out this paper right here I can get one printed out for you!”

You slid the yellow sheet over the desk while you finished scanning in the books, waiting patiently while the shorter skeleton hesitated as he read it over.

“...BROTHER DO YOU REMEMBER THE ADDRESS OF THAT STARS-FORSAKEN HOTEL?” he said after a moment, glaring down at the paper.

“nnnope,” Rus said with a shrug, and his brother grumbled again in agitation.

“Hey, honestly, don’t worry about it,” you said with a shrug. “Just take it with you and give it back when you come back next time? Oh, also,” you grinned and tipped forward, lowering your voice a little like you were sharing some secret. “Technically you’re only allowed to check out four books at a time,” you said, and then glanced at the stack of books he was about to take. Eight in total. “But eh, I’ll let it slide. Just this once.”

Rus chuckled under his breath while his brother’s cheekbones almost seemed to dust a light lavender color. Without another word he grabbed up the yellow sheet, his stack of books, and twisted, marching for the exit.

You had waved back when Rus grinned and waved to you before they disappeared out the door.

The third time you had seen the brothers, little Izy was with you. 

There was a program going on at her school; a pretty cool one, if you had anything to say about it. It was designed to pair a kid with a monster as pen pals. Any and all monsters were encouraged to sign up; their names and addresses were taken down, along with a brief paragraph of their interests, and they were matched with a child. And hopefully, from that, a friendship would blossom that would help--

\-- “Encourage and foster healthy and stronger relations between monsters and humans!” Izy had said, remembering her little script perfectly as she’d tried to talk a tall monster that reminded you of a giraffe into signing up.

The giraffe monster had laughed and took a form to fill out, much to Izy’s delight. It only took the giraffe monster a few minutes, and then she handed the paper back, smiling brightly as Izy tucked the filled out form into a folder filled with quite a few more finished forms as well.

“You should get your first letter from your new pen pal in two weeks!” Izy said, having to glance down at her note card to remember what to say. “Thank you for signing up!”

The giraffe had smiled and waved before moving off into the library proper.

And then the two skeleton brothers approached your desk.

“Heya, how can I help you two today?” 

The shorter brother plopped his stack of eight books he’d checked out last time, and handed over his filled out yellow sheet for his library card. 

“Ooh, did you read them all?” you had asked, grinning as you took the paper without looking at it just yet.

“YES, OF COURSE I DID,” he huffed, cocking a brow at you like he thought it was a stupid question. “ALSO, I HAVE DECIDED I AM NEVER SETTING FOOT ON A TRAIN, THANKS TO THAT LAST ONE YOU SUGGESTED.”

You laughed out loud, nodding. “Pretty brutal, huh?”

“THAT’S A NICE WAY OF PUTTING IT,” he’d grunted. “NOW, TODAY I AM LOOKING FOR--”

Izy leaned forward then, tipping between you and the skeletons so their gaze dropped to her instead of you, pressing her little hands to the desk and grinning wide. “Hello, sirs! Would you guys wanna sign up for the pen pal program for my school?”

That seemed to take both skeletons by surprise, but the shorter one was the one to answer first.

“WHAT? WHY WOULD I EVER WANT TO DO THAT?” his eye sockets narrowed incredulously.

Izy’s grinned widened. “To encourage and foster healthy and stronger relations between monsters and humans!” she said, and beamed with pride at remembering the tricky sentence again on her own without looking at her note card.

Once again, the skeletons looked more curious than anything. You really didn’t expect him to take Izy up on the offer, and so you weren’t surprised when he’d let out a scoff and shook his head.

“BAH. I DON’T HAVE TIME TO BEFRIEND SOME HUMAN WELP,” he tsked and waved a hand in the air dismissively. “I CAME HERE TO LOOK FOR BOOKS ON MEDIEVAL DEVICES OF TORTURE!” he barked, and his purple eyelights narrowed on you then, waiting for his directions.

Before you could answer though, Izy piped up.

She slowly lowered herself back down to her chair in a defeated sigh, and rested her elbows on the desk, dropping her chin into her hands. “That’s gonna be in the history section. Which is over there,” she said, voice slow and dull and lifeless; he’d been the first monster to refuse to fill out a form for the pen pal program. 

Izy let out another sigh, dropping her hand. “There’s a really neat one with a whole section about iron maidens. S’got pictures and everything,” she drawled, and began to doodle a sad little rain cloud on the corner of the empty pen pal form. “There’s also a section in that book about gillatines. Did you know that after a person’s head gets chopped off, their head lives for like a whole ‘nother ten seconds after?”

The skeleton brothers blinked.

“HOW...OLD ARE YOU, HUMAN?” the smaller skeleton demanded, looking thoroughly unsettled and intrigued at the same time.

“Seven,” she answered with another, even gloomier, sigh.

You felt your spine straighten when both skeleton brothers suddenly looked from Izy and up to you.

“...Hey, she’s a smart kid, and sometimes I don’t see what she’s reading in time to slap a censor bar over it,” you admitted with a sheepish wince. The kid read everything she could get her hands on, but at least now you had a pretty strict system where she had to ask you if a book she wanted to read was age appropriate first.

“BAH, I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS,” the shorter skeleton suddenly turned on his heel and stormed away with a huff.

“sorry ‘bout that, kid,” Rus said, peering down at Izy as he walked by after his brother. “he wouldn’t really make a great pen pal for a small fry like you, anyway.”

“I don’t disagree?” you said with a little laugh, and caught the sight of the shorter brother actually stumbling a bit in the corner of your eye.

The two brothers perused their way through the history section of your library, and you kept catching the shorter skeleton brother (you really needed to catch his name sometime! Especially if he was gonna end up being a regular!) tossing the desk little squinty glares. Mostly just whenever Izy would let out another pathetic, gloomy sigh, while she added more rain clouds to the very empty form.

You had to admit, it was almost funny. Especially when you caught sight of Rus almost playfully nudging his shorter brother when Izy would let out a _particularly_ melodramatic and very sad huff.

“Aw, it’s okay Izy,” you had soothed, and ruffled her hair playfully, which pulled another sigh from her.

Apparently, ten minutes of that was far too much for him to handle, because he stormed back up to the desk, pushed aside the pile of books you’d been replacing the stickers on, and slammed his gloved hands onto the old, worn wood.

“I CAN’T TAKE ALL THIS WHINING! IF IT WILL SILENCE YOU, I WILL SIGN UP FOR YOUR _RIDICULOUS_ ‘PEN FRIEND’ PROGRAM!”

Izy was _immediately_ grinning wide and sitting straight up, clasping her hands together neatly in front of her. “It’s Pen Pal, actually!”

“I DON’T CARE! GIVE ME THE PAPER!”

Izy flipped the form around and slid it to him, along with a pen. The margins of that particular form were absolutely full of little sad rain clouds, but that didn’t seem to deter the shorter skeleton any.

You glanced down at the form in time to see him scribble out something he’d written down first on the ‘NAME’ line, and watched him write out “THE MALIGNANT BLACKBERRY” instead.

...Huh. Well, alright. You’re still pretty sure you’ve heard of stranger names before, so you hardly batted an eye. You finally took a glance at his library card sheet and saw he’d written the same name there too. You got to work getting his new card set up.

“AND I WILL GIVE THIS PAPER BACK ON ONE CONDITION!” he huffed, holding the form just out of reach of Izy, who was leaning over the desk with both hands outstretched, making excited grabby-hands for it. “IF I AM TO HAVE A ‘PEN FRIEND’--”

“Pen pal,” Izy corrected.

“--THEN IT MIGHT AS WELL BE YOU. NOT SOME OTHER SNOT-NOSED BRAT WHO DOESN’T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BRAZEN BULL AND AN IRON MAIDEN.”

“which is a little fucked up,” Rus said, and side-stepped to avoid his brother’s swat.

“LANGUAGE!” 

“I’ll tell my teacher that’s what ya want,” Izy grinned, and looked over his form once he handed it back. “...You’ve got really fancy handwriting,” she noted.

You’d peeked over her shoulder and thought the same thing. Very loopy cursive. Nice.

“ONE SHOULD STRIVE FOR IMPRESSIVE GREATNESS IN ALL THAT ONE DOES,” he huffed.

“...Is your first name really ‘The’?”

Rus snickered and The Malignant Blackberry heaved another sigh.

“NO, OF COURSE NOT, THAT IS MY TITLE.” He paused, narrowing his sockets a bit. “...JUST CALL ME ‘MAL’.”

“Will do, Mal!” she grinned and wrote a little note that she was going to be his Pen Pal on the top of his form. You’d noticed she tried her dang best to mimic his loopy letters, which he seemed to notice and almost seemed to _preen_ over where he stood, straightening and crossing his hands behind his spine. 

“You’ll get your first letter in two weeks!” she said, and tucked the paper away into her folder. “...But probably way sooner, because I’m gonna write it tonight.”

“EXCELLENT,” he grunted. “PUNCTUALITY IS KEY.”

Izy squinted for a moment before she looked up at you.

“Punctuality means being on time,” you told her.

“Oh, right, yeah,” she nodded.

“Did you guys find the books you were looking for?” you grinned, leaning a hip against the desk and crossing your arms while Izy made her folder all nice and tidy, humming away like a proud little bee. 

“NO! ALL THAT WHINING AND POUTING DISTRACTED ME!” Mal huffed. “...WE’LL BE BACK TOMORROW,” he added, and shot you a glare that you felt didn’t quite reach his eyes before he turned on his heel and began to march off.

“Bye, Mal!” Izy called.

“GOODBYE, YOU WHINY LITTLE...” Mal paused, then spun and looked back at the desk. He snapped his fingers a few times, like somebody with no manners whatsoever calling for a waiter, which truth be told had you bristling. “TINY HUMAN! WHAT IS YOUR--”

“Hold on,” you clicked your tongue again, holding up a hand, drawing both of the brothers’ eyes. “I dunno if it’s the same in monster culture, but snapping at someone like that is super rude for us. Like, _really_ disrespectful. Don’t do that to her again, alright?” 

There was no room for arguing in your voice, tone strict as a parent, but without the scolding edge actually reserved for children. He seemed to be trying to stare you down though, and you didn’t so much as blink.

Mal blinked, though. Once. Then twice. Then a third time, before his sockets narrowed on you.

“...WE WILL BE BACK TOMORROW,” he said again, heels of his boots clicking together. “MISS…?”

“her name’s poppy,” Rus grunted before you could answer, a little smirk playing on his sharp teeth. “an’ i heard her call the little one izy.”

“FINE. POPPY, IZY. UNTIL NEXT TIME.” Mal waved a hand with a huff and looked up at his brother. “TAKE US HOME,” he said, and his tone made it sound like an order.

Rus had cast another wink your way, placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder, and in the blink of an eye the two of them just...vanished into thin air.

While Izy shrieked and ran around the desk to try to investigate just where they’d gone, all you could think was ‘ _huh, that explains why I never saw ‘em leave that first time._ ’

“...Shit, I forgot to give him his library card,” you’d grumbled.

That had been three weeks ago, and Izy was writing a new letter nearly every day; pen pal letters were quick to deliver when they lived in the same town, after all.

The first week you’d taken to reading over his letters first, just to be sure the overly grumpy, loud skeleton didn’t say anything rude or inappropriate. But to your pleasant surprise, he was shockingly polite, almost formal, and his and Izy’s correspondances had warmed up from pretty stiff conversations about basic likes and dislikes from him, to venting about bad days, complaining about math, or bragging about something or other that the two of them were proud of. And Mal seemed to be proud of a _lot_.

Mal and Rus stopped by more frequently from then on too. Mal had taken a liking to thrillers, and seemed to take it to heart when you’d warned him something was particularly spooky or intense. And he practically dove for the shelf to get his hands on it.

You never saw Rus check out anything. He mostly seemed to tag along for company, and probably as a real handy mode of transportation. 

You’re pretty sure you saw Rus take a swig of barbeque sauce one time from a bottle hidden away in his jacket pocket once. You’re pretty sure you were seeing things though.

The two skeletons had really...grown on you. Rough around the edges, especially Mal, but you’d be happy to consider and call them friends at that point.

So there you were, listening to your little sister read off a letter from her monster pen pal, who’d essentially just told her to start a damn fight. 

Honestly you were kinda right there with him on that; Kevin was a brat. But, that’d get her in more trouble than it was worth.

“Gonna have to vito the duel there, kiddo. But yeah, I’ll bring it up with your teacher again,” you said, and began to circle back around to the front of the library to head inside. You tap the earth off your boots, dust the dirt from your knees, and clap your gloves together a few more times before you’re satisfied, heading up the stone steps towards the big wooden door and--

“HELLO! HUMAN!”

You turned around, absolutely expecting to see Mal, but instead you saw a different skeleton altogether jogging down the cobbled sidewalk towards you. 

Cyan and sky blue replaced the purple, and the sharper armor was rounded and less...well, pointy. You knew he _had_ to be related to Mal, with as similar as they looked (oh god, was that a racist thing to think?? They really could have been twins though!), though this new skeleton gave you the vibe _immediately_ that he could probably speak and blow bubbles at the same time. He just seemed so energetic and happy.

And right on his heels was another skeleton whose height rivaled Rus’. This one also gave you practically the same vibe as his sky blue comrade, though instead of armor, he was wearing a black tank top that said “NEATO CHEETO” in bright orange, and a pair of skinny jeans that hugged the bones of his very long legs.

“Uh...hi!” you said, grinning as you slipped your gloves off of your hands. “What’s up?”

The two slowed to a stop in front of you, and it was the taller one who spoke first.

“OUR COUSIN BLACKBERRY--”

Ah-ha! You knew they were related!

“--FINALLY TOLD US WHO ALL THE LETTERS HE’S BEEN RECEIVING ARE COMING FROM! AND WE TOO WOULD ALSO LIKE TO BE A PEN FRIEND!!”

You paused for a second, blinking a few times. Technically that program was through the school system, and you had no more forms left to fill out. 

“Oh, that’s not-- I don’t...hm.” 

You trailed off, brows knitting together in thought.

You immediately thought of another little kiddo who could very much use a pen pal. A little boy--Izy’s twin brother, no less--who had always had trouble making friends and opening up and talking to people. And Izy’s writing and reading skills had improved in incredible leaps and bounds since starting this whole pen pal program. Maybe one would help your little brother open up?

“I...I’m technically not in charge of that program, we just had forms to fill out here for a little while,” you began to say, and the two looked so damn crestfallen that you almost wanted to reach out and hug the two complete strangers. “But! But, um, I can either tell you where to go to pick up a form to fill out at the school, or…”

You glanced back over your shoulder towards your library. 

Your little brother was no doubt on the upper floor that acted as your apartment, doodling away or playing with his Legos with his noise cancelling headphones resting snuggly over his ears while he worked.

“I know a kiddo who could really use a pen pal or two?” you said, and looked back at them.

That seemed to perk the two skeletons right up. The shorter one in blue practically bounced into the air, and his eyelights actually turned into little stars. “REALLY?” he gasped. “PERFECT! OH, I’M SO EXCITED! IT’S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I’VE WRITTEN A LETTER! OR RECIEVED A LETTER!” 

You waved a hand, motioning the two of them to follow you up the rest of the stairs towards the library’s front door. “Here, c’mon, you can give me your info inside, and maybe I can talk him into coming down and saying hello,” you smiled.

The two skeletons looked at each other, and then bounded up the stairs after you.

“IT WOULD BE A DELIGHT!” the taller one said, grinning excitedly. “I TOO AM EXCITED TO WRITE LETTERS AGAIN! MAL SEEMS LIKE HE HAS SO MUCH FUN!”

You laughed a little under your breath; you couldn’t really imagine that particular monster and ‘fun’ in the same sentence together. 

“Come on in,” you held the door open for them, though the both of them seemed to almost scramble to try to do the same for you before you could reach it. “Make yourselves at home, and welcome to the library.”

**Author's Note:**

> oH my god, I'm doin' it, I'm writin' my dang reverse harem skelebae fic ommfmfmgm
> 
> This puppy's dedicated to my buds [Lavender_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavender_chan/pseuds/Lavender_chan) and [AnonChan1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonChan1/pseuds/AnonChan1)!! The coolest of beans.
> 
> FEEL FREE TO DROP ME AN ASK or just come say hello!! at my [Undertale Tumblr!](https://teatinblix.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Also, here's a wee list of the Skelebae names I'll be using for this fic!:  
> Sans, Papyrus (Classic Undertale)  
> Mal, Rus (Swapfell)  
> Blue, Stretch (Underswap)  
> Red, Edge (Underfell)  
> Axe, Crooks (Horrortale)  
> ...and if I'm being honest, probably a few more, but those are TBA lmao

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Pocket (Boyfriend) Dimension](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18761986) by [Lavender_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavender_chan/pseuds/Lavender_chan)




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